In yesterday’s exclusive interview with our man GREGG EVANS, Blues defender Mitch Hancox revealed how he was planning to join the armed forces until his older brother was shot while on patrol in Afghanistan. Today, Matthew Hancox explains how he is using sport – and his love of Blues – to get his life back on track.

Nothing will ever replace the passion Matthew Hancox put into being a Royal Marine and the pride he took out of it.

Even when a bullet ripped through his chest during a patrol in Afghanistan, the armed forces hero managed to put on a brave face as he ordered comrades to capture what could have been his final picture.

Matthew – older brother of Blues defender Mitch – lived and breathed for 42 Commando until his dice with death ended his dream career in the military.

But these servicemen are made of stern stuff.

And despite being transformed from an ‘ultimate machine’ into a wounded veteran, the 25-year-old from Solihull is using sport – and his love of Blues – to get his life back on track.

“I’ve made a remarkable recovery but things will never be the same, I know that,” he said.

“I won’t ever have full movement in my arm again and the scars will always be there.

“Being a marine I was obviously very fit and I enjoyed weightlifting.

“But I’m happy to say that I’m back at the stage where I can begin playing cricket again for my local side, Catherine-de-Barnes seconds.

“I recently competed in the Warrior Games, the US military’s Paralympic-style competition, which was great.

Matthew Hancox ordered his comrades to take a picture of him after he was shot.

“We sent a team over from the UK and I got bronze in the 100m, silver in the 200m and bronze in the 1500m.

“As a spin-off from America I will be working with Help 4 Heroes and Great Britain Paralympics with a view to continuing my sprinting.

‘‘And, of course, I love going down the Blues to watch Mitch play. It’s great to see him doing so well.

‘‘Me and the rest of the family go to every home game and as many away games as possible.’’

Matthew grew up with ‘every young lad’s ambition’ of playing football for his local side – in his case, Blues.

As he progressed from St Margaret’s Junior School to Lyndon School he turned his attention to the Navy.

In 2009 he joined up but in his first and only venture to Afghanistan he saw his life flash before him.

On September 20, 2011, he was shot in the chest and nearly killed. He explains: “I had done six-and-a-half months and I had two weeks left before I came home.

“I had already just heard the news about my brother, Mitch, making the bench for Blues for the first time.

“We were sitting in this dust-bowl eating rations and doing what we do... and I phoned mum, we only got something like half-an-hour every two weeks to call home, and she told me Mitch had been on the bench for the first time.

“I was really buzzing for that. Who would have thought the next time he would see me I would be on a ventilator back in England.

“I was leading a routine patrol, it was something I had done for about half of my time there.

Matthew Hancox meets Prince Harry at the Warrior Games in Colarado

“I picked a safe route which avoided IED’s (Improvised Explosive Device) but we realised we were being ‘scouted’.

“As it turned out the insurgency were plotting an ambush. So me, as the first bloke, walked straight into it. I remember turning left and seeing kids, maybe half-a-dozen of them. They were about four or five years old.

“They did text-book mandate dives, left and right, out of the way.

“Then behind them was what we call a fighting-aged male standing there with an AK47.

“His first shot hit me in the body armour, luckily, but the second one entered through the right-hand upper chest, the third one missed.

“He got me with a second round.

“I did what I was drilled to do, return fire, then the other boys came and dragged me out of there.

“The medic patched me up with the specialist kit we have got available.

“I was all still with it at this point, telling the boys to take a photo.

“But I knew that having a shot to my chest and spitting blood out of my mouth wasn’t a good sign.

“I was deteriorating, but I knew that if I could get back to Camp Bastion, the survival rate is something like 98 per cent.

“I knew all I had to do was fight until I got there, then I could be lazy and the doctors and those geniuses could work their magic.

“I did, and came round 12 days later in the intensive care unit in the QE (Birmingham).”

Matthew lost full movement in his arm and for almost two years his parents and fiancée have acted as his carer during his rehabilitation.

“All the lads on the ground thought it was a ‘Hollywood’ injury at the time because it went in and out,” he added.

“When a bullet goes in, and plays pinball with all the organs and then comes out, that’s known as a worse hit, but mine came straight out.

“But what you don’t see in the movies is nerve damage, the artery damage, muscle and tendon damage, smashing up of the bones, that led to the internal artery bleeding into my lungs; then my lungs got infected so I had to have a tracheostomy (a tube inserted into the neck to assist breathing).

“And the severe nerve damage to the arm. It’s quite a lot from, what in military circles, we might perceive as a simple injury, straight in and straight out.

“I’m lucky to be here. I’m grateful for that. I went from being all-round fitter and stronger than guys like professional footballers to being on a ventilator.

“Things were grim for me. I went from an ultimate machine to being on that many drugs in hospital that I couldn’t walk for ten days.

“I was pumped full of these horrendous drugs that give you all sorts of hallucinations.

“Then for a year, post-injury, I couldn’t move my arm at all because of damaged nerves.”

The incredible service at Headley Court (where wounded soldiers visit for rehabilitation) has aided his long road to recovery. This time next year he will be discharged and close to completing a degree in exercise and nutritional health.

“My recovery has been excellent and that’s down to a lot of things, my family, Headley Court in conjunction with Hasle Company Royal Marines, charities and other support groups.

“The nurses at the Queen Elizabeth and my subsequent medical, rehab care and treatment has been world class, so life goes on.”

Quite what the future holds for this gallant young man is still unclear.

His dream career may have been cruelly shattered into pieces but his fight and spirit will certainly live on.